Fostering Resiliency in Mental Health Professionals: A Strengths-Based, Trauma-Informed Framework

Resilience is commonly defined as the capacity to recover from difficulties and adapt positively in the face of adversity.¹ For mental health professionals, resilience refers to not only “bouncing back,” but also adaptive and flexible ways to maintain professional effectiveness while engaging with trauma-impacted populations. The need for resilience often occurs under conditions of chronic stress, loss, or at times, systemic barriers.

Such resilience amongst professionals involves psychological flexibility, a strong sense of self, and the ability to draw upon resources and support to navigate challenges. Resilience involves the dynamics among individual traits (eg, self-efficacy, optimism), organizational factors (eg, leadership support and culture, workload, work schedule), and broader systemic conditions. Saggar (2021) explored the psychological impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers, focusing on compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and mental well-being.² The study found that higher levels of burnout are associated with lower mental well-being and found a positive association between burnout and secondary traumatic stress. The results highlight the need for mental health interventions to support psychological care among health care professionals, including strategies to enhance compassion skills and organizational support toward improving the mental health and job satisfaction of health care workers.

Emotional Intelligence and Resilience in Mental Health Professionals
Emotional intelligence (EI) and resilience are often recognized as essential attributes for mental health professionals working with individuals affected by serious mental illness (SMI), given the high levels of emotional stress encountered in daily clinical practice. In a cross-sectional study, Frajo-Apor et al evaluated both EI and resilience, as well as their interrelationship, in a sample of 61 members of an assertive outreach team supporting patients with SMI.³ Their data were compared to a control group of 61 individuals without experience in healthcare-related occupations. EI was measured using the German version of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and resilience was assessed using the German version of the Resilience Scale. Participants in both groups showed average EI scores across all MSCEIT categories and reported high levels of resilience. No statistically significant differences were found between the 2 groups in either EI or resilience scores. Correlation analyses revealed a modest positive association between EI and resilience. The Frajo-Apor et al results indicated mental health professionals are not inherently more resilient or more protected against occupational stressors than individuals outside the healthcare field. The authors indicated that, although the results should be interpreted with caution, the observed relationship between EI and resilience suggests that enhancing EI may serve as a useful strategy for fostering resilience, even among generally healthy individuals, and vice versa.

Trauma-Informed Care: A Foundation for Resilient Practice
Trauma-informed care (TIC) shifts the narrative from "What’s wrong with you?", to "What happened to you?", and recognizes the widespread impact of trauma in clients and professionals alike.⁴ TIC offers a compassionate, empathetic, and safety-oriented approach that also applies to the care of staff. A trauma-informed organization strives to create a work environment that promotes psychological and emotional safety, autonomy, trust, choice, collaboration, and empowerment for clients and workers. TIC encourages environments where mental health professionals can engage in reflective practice and care, receive supervision, and access mental health resources without stigma. TIC also recognizes that many mental health professionals have their own lived experiences of trauma, chronic stress, and loss, and emphasizes the importance of safety, choice, collaboration, trust, and empowerment across all levels of care.⁴

Promoting Strengths-Based Approaches
A strengths-based approach focuses on the person's existing resources, support, and capabilities.⁵ In the context of mental health work, clinicians are encouraged to draw upon their personal resilience, values, strengths, and sense of purpose and meaning, to support recovery and growth in themselves and their clients; doing so helps reframe adversity as an opportunity for empowerment and transformation. Building resilience entails recognizing and utilizing personal and team strengths to navigate adversity and sustain well-being. The navigation includes problem-solving skills, emotional regulation, distress tolerance skills, using peer support, and commitment to meaningful work (eg, Stamm, 2010). When mental health professionals experience belief and confidence in their skills and purpose, their adaptability and creativity can increase, therein enhancing both care outcomes and workplace satisfaction.

The concept of self-efficacy is essential to building resilience. Self-efficacy refers to an individual’s belief in their ability to execute tasks needed to produce specific performance or outcomes.³ For mental health professionals, high self-efficacy helps to approach and build their capacity to manage complex clinical situations, navigate ethical dilemmas, and maintain therapeutic relationships, even under stress. When practitioners trust their skills and professional judgment, they are more likely to approach challenges with resilience and innovation. Unhealthy avoidance or risk of burnout can diminish.

Researchers have found that low self-efficacy precedes burnout.⁶ Success does not necessarily depend on having a specific skill, but depends on believing in one’s ability to overcome challenges. Individuals with high self-efficacy are more likely to take on challenges, which leads to greater productivity.⁷ Conversely, low self-efficacy results in avoiding challenges and, consequently, lower productivity. In mental health settings, self-efficacy can help foster a sense of control and agency, which supports creativity in treatment planning and adaptability in the face of change or adversity. Taken together, care outcomes can improve, while practitioners also experience greater engagement, purpose, and meaning in their work.

Empowerment needs to be engrained as part of organizational policies and practices where opportunities for growth are provided. Examples of opportunities include continuing education, professional mentorship, opportunities for career training and development, and promotions.⁸ By supporting career development and emotional safety, organizations enhance workers' self-efficacy and competence.⁹

Vicarious Resilience and Post-Traumatic Growth
Vicarious trauma describes the negative emotional and psychological experiences by workers upon indirect exposure to trauma, or the traumatic experience of others, and has been widely recognized among mental health professionals.¹⁰ The extant literature has also described vicarious resilience as the positive impact that witnessing clients' healing journeys of recovery, strength, and growth can have on the clinician, enhancing empathy and compassion, renewed purpose and meaning, and hope, and increased self-awareness.¹¹ Vicarious resilience can enhance clinicians' sense of meaning and purpose in their work, while serving as a protective factor against burnout and compassion fatigue. Similarly, posttraumatic growth (PTG) refers to psychological growth following adversity, often resulting in stronger interpersonal relationships, a healthy view of self, enhanced appreciation for life, and greater spiritual or existential insight.¹²
For clinicians who have experienced trauma, whether personally or vicariously, posttraumatic growth can help offer a powerful framework for understanding how adversity or trauma can turn into a catalyst for transformation. Vicarious PTG, a related concept, involves worldview shifts and increased optimism arising from observing others’ growth and resilience.¹³ Clinicians are impacted by trauma of others, but are also inspired by their perseverance, determination, courage, and capacity for change.

Compassion Satisfaction: Finding Meaning and Purpose
 Compassion satisfaction (CS) is recognized as a workplace protective factor and a key component in sustaining resiliency. CS refers to the sense of joy and fulfillment derived from helping others.¹⁴ This feeling often coexists with the emotional labor of clinical work and serves as a protective factor against the risk of burnout and secondary traumatic stress.¹⁵ CS elevates resilience by reinforcing purpose, meaning, values, and belonging in one’s work. Mental health professionals who perceive their work as meaningful tend to report higher levels of well-being and lower emotional exhaustion.¹⁶

Proactive strategies that strengthen compassion satisfaction include:
• Identifying the purpose, meaning, and positive impact of one’s work;
• Reflecting on client successes and personal growth;
• Celebrating both team and individual accomplishments;
• Finding appreciation and purpose in helping others;
• Receiving gratitude from clients, colleagues, or the community;
• Engaging in values-driven initiatives and advocacy; and,
• Recognizing effort and achievement, regardless of the outcome.

Sustaining resiliency over time requires ongoing investments. Healthcare professionals are encouraged to engage in self-care practices that align with their values and help toward emotional resiliency, while setting boundaries between work and personal life to help reduce emotional exhaustion and burnout. Seeking mentorship, social support, and peer support, while building supportive communities can offer guidance, emotional support, practical assistance, and a sense of belonging. Cultivating a growth mindset further strengthens adaptive capacity. When these healthy coping strategies are supported and engrained at the individual, organizational, and cultural levels, they help contribute to a resilient workforce.

Organizational Strategies for Enhancing Resilience

Individuals can build and strengthen their resilience through personal proactive strategies, self-care, and healthy behaviors. Nevertheless, organizational systems, structure, and culture substantially influence whether resilience is maintained or at risk of diminishing. Resilience is not solely an individual responsibility; organizations play a critical role in supporting resilience.
The National Academy of Medicine (2019) highlights that system-level factors (eg, workload, work scheduling, sense of autonomy, and excessive administrative duties) significantly influence mental health professionals' capacity for growth and success.¹⁷ Organizations can promote resiliency through:
Supportive leadership. Managers who provide compassion and empathy, prioritize wellbeing, and provide validation help to encourage psychological safety and trust (eg, West et al, 2017).
Reflective supervision. Structured and safe spaces between supervisors and clinicians where clinicians can discuss their experiences, thoughts, reactions, and emotions can help reduce the risk of burnout and improve care.¹⁸
Peer support programs. Peer-led initiatives provide a sense of belonging, practical assistance, shared experiences, and normalize help-seeking (eg, Smit et al, 2023).
Wellness initiatives. These may include mindfulness training, trauma-informed workshops, and stress management skills.

In The King's Fund report, Caring to Change: How Compassionate Leadership Can Stimulate Innovation in Health Care, compassionate leadership is indicated as critical to driving innovation and delivering high-quality care within the National Health Service.¹⁹ Compassion is defined as attending, understanding, empathizing, and helping, which are core behaviors that must be embedded into leadership practices at all levels. The report underlines that when staff feel valued, psychologically safe, and supported, they are more likely to contribute ideas, take initiative, and engage in problem-solving. Compassionate leadership cultivates this environment by encouraging inclusion, shared purpose, and cross-boundary collaboration, considered essential for sustainable innovation and improvement. The report outlines 4 cultural elements that support innovative care: (1) an inspiring vision and strategy, (2) inclusive participation, (3) teamwork across boundaries, and (4) empowering staff with autonomy. Drawing from case studies, the report showcased how each facet, encompassed by compassion, can drive organizational change. The report emphasized that leadership development should move beyond formal training to cultivate compassionate behaviors and shared leadership models. The report also highlighted the importance for health systems to invest in leadership that models empathy, promotes equity, and creates conditions where both staff and patients thrive.

Measuring and Sustaining Resiliency Over Time
Organizations can use validated instruments such as the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) to help evaluate the effectiveness of resiliency initiatives.¹⁴ The ProQOL assesses compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress.¹⁴ Regular monitoring can help with targeted prevention and intervention initiatives and meeting staff needs.

Concluding Thoughts
Resiliency is essential for sustainable, ethical, and compassionate care. The current article explored the multifaceted nature of resilience through trauma-informed and strengths-based lenses, highlighting the importance of self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, posttraumatic growth, vicarious resilience, and compassion satisfaction. Together, these elements foster a deeper sense of purpose, adaptability, and professional fulfillment in the face of persistent stress and trauma exposure. Strengthening resilience enhances the well-being of practitioners while improving care outcomes for those they serve.

Organizational systems, leadership, and culture are also essential for furthering the psychological health of mental health professionals. Compassionate leadership, reflective supervision, peer support programs, and wellness initiatives are important elements to integrate within policies and practice. Measuring outcomes and engaging in continuous improvement can further promote a resilient workforce. Aligning both individual and organizational efforts can help mental health professionals to thrive, being better positioned to provide enduring support to those in need (see Table).

Dr Kamkar is a clinical psychologist at CAMH and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

Dr George is a senior scientist at CAMH and professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He is on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times, and serves as co-principal editor of Neuropsychopharmacology, official journal of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Dr Carleton is a professor of psychology at the University of Regina in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

References

1. Building your resilience. American Psychological Association. 2020. Accessed September 30, 2025. https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience

2. Saggar I. Compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and mental wellbeing among health care workers during COVID-19 outbreak. Int J Indian Psych. 2021;9(2):888-895.

3. Frajo-Apor B, Pardeller S, Kemmler G, et al. Emotional intelligence and resilience in mental health professionals caring for patients with serious mental illness. Psychol Health Med. 2016;21(6):755-761.

4. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach. HHS Publication; 2014.

5. Saleebey D. The Strengths Perspective In Social Work Practice. Allyn & Bacon; 2006.

3. Bandura A. Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. WH Freeman/Times Books/ Henry Holt & Co; 1997.

6. Schwarzer R, Hallum S. Perceived teacher self-efficacy as a predictor of job stress and burnout: mediation analyses. Applied Psychology. 2008;57(S1):152-171.

7. Villotti P, Corbière M. A serial mediation model of workplace social support on work productivity: the role of self-stigma and job tenure self-efficacy in people with severe mental disorders. Disability and Rehab. 2017;40:1-7.

8. Greer JA. Implementing trauma-informed care practices in the workplace: a descriptive phenomenological study. Discov Psychol 2024;4:28.7.

9. Smit D, Miguel C, Vrijsen JN, et al. The effectiveness of peer support for individuals with mental illness: systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychol Med. 2023;53(11):5332-5341.

10. McCann IL, Pearlman LA. Vicarious traumatization: a framework for understanding the psychological effects of working with victims. J Trauma Stress. 1990;3(1):131-149.

11. Hernández P, Gangsei D, Engstrom D. Vicarious resilience: a new concept in work with those who survive trauma. Fam Process. 2007;46(2):229-241.

12. Tedeschi RG, Calhoun LG. Target article: "posttraumatic growth: conceptual foundations and empirical evidence." Psych Inquiry. 2004;15(1):1-18

13. Arnold D, Calhoun LG, Tedeschi R, et al. Vicarious posttraumatic growth in psychotherapy. J Hum Psych. 2005;45(2):239-263.

14. Stamm B. The Concise ProQOL Manual: The concise manual for the Professional Quality of Life Scale, 2nd Edition. 2010.
15. Craig CD, Sprang G. Compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout in a national sample of trauma treatment therapists. Anx Stress Coping. 2010;23(3):319-339.

16. Radey M, Figley C. The social psychology of compassion. Clin Soc Work J. 2007;35:207-214.

17. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM); National Academy of Medicine; Committee on Systems Approaches to Improve Patient Care by Supporting Clinician Wellbeing. Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Wellbeing. National Academies Press (US); 2019.

18. Sweeney A, Clement S, Filson B, et al. Trauma-informed mental healthcare in the UK: what is it and how can we further its development? Mental Health Rev J. 2016;21(3):174-192.

19. West MA, Eckert R, Collins B, et al. Caring to change: How compassionate leadership can stimulate innovation in health care. King’s Fund Report. May 3, 2017. Accessed September 30, 2025. https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/caring-change